


kiss me once again

by shiiera



Series: you stole my heart and i couldn't leave you if i tried [7]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Age Swap, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Forgot I wrote some sex in here LOL, Holidays, Sexual Content, Some Mild Angst, Thanksgiving, family gathering, out of chronological order
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 17:32:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14815755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shiiera/pseuds/shiiera
Summary: Rey had seen this once in a movie. In a lot of movies, actually. Those American films about large families having large family problems around the holidays. Love the Coopers, The Family Stone to name some -- which surprisingly, both starred Diane Keaton for some reason. There was also the obsession Americans had with funerals and big families, like This is Where I Leave You, and Rey halfheartedly looks at Ben as she places the silverware around the table. He did look awfully similar to that Driver guy.Part VII of a series of one-shots focused on an AU where Rey is older than Ben and they're just really bad at relationships.





	kiss me once again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reinasolo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reinasolo/gifts).



> not beta'd. song title from shiina ringo's koko de kisu shite 
> 
>  
> 
> _i'll never be able to give up on you, so never say good bye and kiss me once again_
> 
> *final rewrite 6.1.2018

Upstate New York is breathtaking in the Fall. It is like another world compared to the concrete jungle that Rey had known for four years since arriving to America. There are advertisements everywhere in the city advertising the wonders of New York’s natural offerings outside of the Big Apple and sometimes, as Rey is riding a subway car plastered with them, she considers taking a trip upstate. Parks, zip lining, white water rafting — there’s so much more than Broadway, pizza, and yellow cabs.

But that costs money she does not have.

As Ben continues to drive down the rolling hills and twisting roads of Chappaqua, New York, Rey stares in awe at the tree lined streets and Colonial homes that look like models used in a Norman Rockwell painting. The roads are covered in a blanket of yellow and red oak leaves, and whenever the rental drives through them, they fly up into the air and capture the light like a warm confetti falling around them.

There’s a lot more to New York.

Thanksgiving was today -- had this been any other year, she would have been at her small apartment eating free take-out from Denny's while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on her television. This year was different. Rey had a reason to why she was in a car with her boyfriend, driving through one of the richest towns in New York.  He wanted to go home for the holidays and take her with him. She reluctantly relented to the idea, running to Macy’s to buy a modest dark grey A-lined one piece that threw her over budget by sixty bucks. Rey did not bother letting Ben know how much the dress cost, especially not after seeing his reaction to her as she stepped out of her apartment building. It wasn't everyday that she kept her hair in a tight high ponytail with her facial features accented with light, rosy makeup.

Looking like Sandy from Grease (before the glow-up) was not her style, but the last time she had met with Ben’s mother, it was soak and wet in her son’s robe after their very obvious impromptu fuck session. First impressions are lasting impressions but even Robert Downy Jr. got his comeback.

Rey was used to Ben’s rich boy look. It’s how he looks when he attends school and academic events — dark slacks and a button down shirt with a tie. Sometimes he wears a jacket and other times it's with a cardigan. It was also the first outfit she had met him in. The Academic Ben Look was a quick lesson on how not to judge a book by its cover. As Rey mind wanders, she absentmindedly squeezes her thighs together to abate from a vivid memory creeping in her mind. One of him pressed against her outside the backdoor of Denny’s, his lips against her throat and his hand inside her pants, fingers pressed against her core. Yeah, she didn’t expect that from him or the marathon sex session at her place after that.

Again, don't judge a book by it's cover.

They look like a Stepford couple straight out of a 50s sitcom but fuck like internet porno stars. The contrast is almost jarring — almost.

“ We are leaving after dinner, right?” Rey asks as they pull into a private driveway, hidden by trees covered in yellows, reds, and browns.

Ben hums with nod, “ Yeah. I rather be home before midnight.”

She doesn’t know why Ben is so reluctant to the idea of staying at his parent for a night. She even brought an overnight bag, ignoring his protests that they were not staying. It made no sense -- why would they travel all the way out into the strange million dollar badlands if he had no intentions on staying overnight? It wasn’t like they did the whole Thanksgiving thing of going back home for the weekend. The previous year, Ben blew up her phone with text messages and promises of Chinese food and beer. He came over and, yeah, there was Chinese and beer, but he spent most of that evening eating her out instead.

It wasn't much of a Thanksgiving.

And, they weren’t dating then, either. _Now_ they had a name for their relationship. _Now_ they were trying to make something out of nothing. Visiting the parents was eventually going to happen. Might as well been during Thanksgiving than Christmas. At least then Rey wouldn’t have to be obligated to buy them a gift that she knew for a fact they would not like.

“ You didn’t tell me you lived in a mansion, Ben.” Rey says as they get out of the car once they arrived. She closes the door as Ben grabs a box from the back seat.

It was a pie from a baker near his apartment. Apparently his father enjoyed the apple pies from there.

“ It’s not a mansion,” Ben says as he closes the car door with his foot. “ There’s only four bedrooms.”

“ It looks big to me.” She counts the windows, “ There’s more windows here than in my entire apartment building.”

“ No, there isn’t.”

There is ten windows in the front of the home, not including the two on the garage doors. It’s more than Rey is used to seeing on a home. The home is rather wide and painted in white with subtle forest green accents on the shutters and front door. As they walk up the winding pathway to the front door, Rey notices a small bench against the wall covered in leaves, next to a door that must lead to an office or something. There are small lawn lights that guide the way up to the front door.

It opens before Ben can ring the doorbell.

“ Happy Thanksgiving, kiddo!” Han Solo boisterously greets with a grin and wide arms. He looks at Rey, his smile never faltering, “ And you must be the girlfriend! Rey, right?”

Based off of what Rey has heard from Ben about his father, this was not what she was expecting. She gives him a small smile, “ Yes. That’s right.”

Han steps aside and gives them room to enter. Ben doesn’t say anything as he follows behind his girlfriend, opting to shove the fifteen dollar apple pie into the arms of his father. Rey can hear Han talk about how grateful he is to eat that pie again (guess it really was a favorite), but she’s awestruck by Ben’s childhood home.

Everything looks like it came from a page of those Better Homes and Gardens magazines that are at the checkout lane in the supermarket. To the right of them is a library filled wall to wall with books. Ahead leads into the kitchen, sunroom and dining room, and to the left side of the home is the staircase to the bedrooms and a sunny living area with a piano and fireplace. The piano looks untouched and she doubts that there are many evenings where his parents sit and play songs together like Archie and Edith, but it's a nice decoration none-the-less. At least the television is on; the National Dog Show is airing disrupting the random moments of silence.

For a kid who grew up on the real life set of Leave it to Beaver, crashing his dad’s prized possession in a fit of anger seems a bit overkill in perspective. Rey figured she’d interrogate him later on the ride back to the city but for now she will try to enjoy the turkey and cranberry sauce without having to step on any toes.

The walls are of creams and pastels, adorned with family photos that tell the story of this family, or at least its political and military achievements. There are some black and white photos, some color photographs, but there aren't any _family_ photographs. It's odd to the young woman but rather than dwell on it, she concludes that its just another peculiarity to a very special family rather than assume there's something deeper going on. 

“ Where’s Chewie?” Ben asks as they walk into the kitchen. The smell of Thanksgiving dinner fills the air the closer they get and Rey can’t help her mouth water at the taste of home cooked food. It takes her mind off of the photographs and pianos.

Han places the pie on top of the island, next to the home made cake, “ Out in the back. You know, to do his thing.”

“ What’s Chewie?” Rey asks. Ben takes Rey’s hand and guides her into the sunroom with a panoramic view of the large backyard that appeared to slope down into a quiet little creek covered by trees.

It’s too picturesque — even for her to fully appreciate.

“ Chewie is the family dog. A Great Pyrénées. He’s old, _really_ old. We got him when I was twelve so… he’s pushing at least… thirteen or fourteen now.”

A rust colored dog with streaks of grey can be seen walking around the backyard sniffing the pristine cut grass.

“ The vet says it’s remarkable,” Han says, genuinely impressed, from behind them, “ Found him in the mud out in Washington and now here he is, old, happy and still active. Probably still kicking because I’m still alive.”

It’s a strange feeling being in the same room with the father and son who have an unusually strained relationship and yet everything be normal. Is it an act or is this calm before the storm? Rey's mind runs loose again with wild theories and unanswered questions. The ride back to the city was going to be an interesting one, that's for sure.

“ I’m going to go say hi to Chewie.” Ben says after a few brief moments of silence as they watched the old dog acquaint himself with nature. “ Wanna come or…?”

Rey looks over her shoulder at Han and then up at Ben. Should she go outside with him and talk to him about his father or should she stay behind and get to know him? At least if she got his father's side of the story, she'd have a better perspective as to what was going on. Han clears his throat, reminding everyone that he’s still there.

“ I’m going to be in the garage tinkering with the Falcon. I think your mother should be back any minute now.”

Rey’s ears perk up, “ The Falcon? Is that the… car… Ben…”

The sentence hangs in the air. Of course she would just ask that dumb question instead of simply going off with Ben into the very pretty garden outside. But, Han saves her the embarrassment by answering her question with a lazy smirk.

“ Yeah, that she is.” Han says as he looks at son. Ben doesn’t bother to look at his father and focuses his attention on Chewie, “ I don’t think she’ll ever ride again, but, at least I can keep her looking pretty.”

“ Well. I’ll be outside.” Ben says before leaning over to kiss Rey on the temple. “ Call me when the food is ready to be consumed.” He says as he walks backwards with his hands clasped in front of him. He gives the two one last look before turning around and walking to the door and out into the backyard.

Rey watches her boyfriend run towards Chewie, calling his name out with a smile on her face. Ben kneels down and holds his arms wide open and the old Pyrenees jumps into his arms, covering his face with big, sloppy wet dog kisses. Another part of Ben she had never seen before that she takes and puts in a box marked, ‘ Reasons to Love’. The box has been growing since she allowed to open the locks to her heart and soul all those months ago for Ben.

It was scary in the beginning but now Rey is content with collecting moments and cherishing them.

“ Do you wanna see her or are you fine standing here? I mean, it’s nice to watch Ben play outside — I’ve did it for eighteen years — but I think it would be rude of me not to give you a tour of the house.”

Rey turns around and Han is giving her that smirk that she had seen on Ben’s face too many times than she can count. It’s there that she realizes that Ben is every bit his father. This was the future she was looking into. This is what she would be experiencing when they’re old and gray and meeting their kid’s significant other for the first time.

“ Yeah, I would like to see her.” Rey says with a wide smile.

As she walks back into the house with Han leading the way, she doesn’t notice Ben watching her disappear from outside with tight lips and a tense and nervous jaw.

Four bedrooms, a study/library, a living room, sunroom, dining room, nook and kitchen. That was the Skywalker-Solo house. Completely decorated with an All American taste for nostalgia and comfort. It’s nothing that Rey has ever experienced before in her life and the feeling of seeing each room, nook, and cranny of the makes her wonder if this was what Meghan Markle felt when she first toured Buckingham Palace as the fiancé to the prince.

Its when Han introduces her to the Falcon that the inner ten year old sings in Rey’s heart. The 1967 Shelby Cobra 427 sits pretty in the garage, most of its time spent underneath a grey cover, now exposed for the woman to see. There’s been obvious repair work done and most of the parts on it aren’t the originals, but its still a beauty with its silver paint job and chrome finish.

“ I got this on my eighteenth birthday. Back when eighteen cigarettes was an actual thing to give to a kid on their birthday. There are _a lot_ memories in that thing.” Han says as he puts the car cover on the carpenter workbench next to the garage entrance.  “ I take it you like cars?” Han remarks as he watches Rey run her fingers over the curved frame with a look of awe.

“ M-my father… He was a mechanic on a race team when I was a child. Always was traveling but he’d occasionally take me to the race track and show me the cars. I wanted to be like him in the beginning then I started finding engines interesting and it just snowballed from there. Always wanted to be an engineer and design beauties like this.”

The ‘ What happened ‘ question never comes. It always was the follow up question after the backstory and Rey would come up with a lie to cover up the nasty truth about an injury that lead to drugs that eventually left her at an orphanage. This time it never comes. Rey is glad Han doesn’t press for more information from her. He just stands by the door to the garage with his arms crossed and that lazy smile on his face, as if he already approves of the girl he just met not even an hour ago. When Rey looks up at Han, it’s like she can read his mind -- _You done good, kid. I was worried._

It’s so much more different than her experience with Leia all those months ago. Rey thinks she can be herself around Han and not worry about keeping up appearances around him. She doesn’t feel afraid to be a poor waitress far away from home with a basket full a dreams and nowhere to put them.

But she keeps quiet and follows Han back inside the house after he puts the Millennium Falcon to sleep.

Ben looks at the two as they come into the kitchen with an uncertain look, as if he’s worried that Han told her something that would make his girlfriend run away. Rey walks over to where he’s seated on the wicker loveseat in the sunroom, adjacent to the kitchen, and steps in between his legs, holding out her hands for him to take. In the corner, Chewie looks up at the couple from where he’s laying and makes a noise as he goes back to sleep.

“ Did my father treat you good?” Ben asks as he looks up at Rey, taking her hands into his. Rey nods.

“ We didn’t talk about much. At least, nothing personal.” She takes her left hand and cards it through his hair. He closes his eyes as she does this and leans into the touch.

“ Good.” He sighs. “ Good.”  Ben presses his lips against the pulse point of her wrist, “ That’s good.”

Han clears his throat, interrupting the moment. Rey looks over her shoulder as Ben peeks from around her body. Han points with his thumb over his shoulder with a sheepish grin that makes Rey blush (surprisingly) and his son roll his eyes.

“ Your mother’s here and the turkey is about done so it’d be a good time to help set up the table for dinner.”

Rey had seen this once in a movie. In a lot of movies, actually. Those American films about large families having large family problems around the holidays. _Love the Coopers_ , _The Family Stone,_ etc  -- which surprisingly always starred Diane Keaton for some reason. There was also that obsession Americans had with funerals and big families, like _This is Where I Leave You_ , and Rey halfheartedly looks at Ben as she places the silverware around the table. He did look awfully similar to that Driver guy.

At the end of it all, the one thing Rey got out of those films was that there wasn’t a perfect dinner without the shit hitting the fan. There wasn’t a wedding without the fiance’s ex trying to ruin it. There wasn’t a couple that didn’t end up breaking up and sleeping with each other's sibling by the end of the holiday vacation.

And there wasn’t a mother who had a tense relationship with the city girl her beloved son brought home.

“ The dress looks nice on you,” Leia remarks as she comes back into the kitchen. She’s dressed in a simple black tunic and grey pants. Her hair is down, held back with a headband, and her face is done tastefully with earth-toned makeup. She looks at Rey from above her glasses with a smirk of her own, “ You clean up nice.”

Rey nearly drops the dish of mashed potatoes at the sound of Leia’s voice. She turns around and licks her lips nervously. Was that supposed to be a compliment?

“ Y-your earrings look nice, uh, Mrs. Solo.”

Leia takes off her glasses and waves Rey away as she puts them on top of the island. Through the partition that separated the kitchen from the dining room, she can see Ben and Han engaged in a conversation. Was this planned? It has to be because Leia is standing right in front of her and she can’t get around the older woman.

“ We got off on a bad… start." Leia starts rather frankly. " I’m sure you can understand that finding out my idiot son nearly got kicked out of school for something stupid would piss me off as his mother,” She crosses her arms over her chest, “ No offense. Not saying that _you’re_ stupid but honestly, quitting school for a relationship is pretty dumb. People have relationships and go to school all the time. I’m sure you get where I’m going with this.”

No, she does not.

“ Yeah, I do.”

“ Well, that’s good. I think you’re a good kid. Smart, too, from what I’ve heard over the last few weeks.” The dish is heavy in Rey’s hands but it doesn’t look like Leia cares in the slightest bit as she continues to talk, “ Armitage made it sound like you were some kind of cougar but eight years isn’t _that_ bad. Hell, Han is ten years older than me. Met him when I was eighteen -- you should put that dish down before you drop it.”

“ No, no, no. I’m fine.”

“ No, you’re not.”

“ No, I’m definitely not.” Rey says quickly and puts the dish back down on the island. She can feel the blood flow return and she mentally sighs in relief.

Leia smiles and its a genuine one. One that makes her glow in a way Rey never thought was possible. Her dreams had been haunted by this stern, cold eyed woman for so long that she was starting to believe she was looking at someone else. An alien or something.

Definitely not Leia Skywalker-Solo.

“ Look, I know my Ben is a bit…" She moves her hands around as if she's trying to find the right word but gives up, " He has a lot of baggage. I’m sure you’ve figured it out. We could have done better raising him. I know that. Han knows that. But don’t let whatever problems we have affect your relationship with him. He’s a good kid, underneath all the … family problems. Just… _work_ with us. All of us. Me, Han, Ben... Have the patience to deal with this crazy family, okay? I haven’t seen my son this _happy_ in years.” Leia says and the smile falls from her face. It’s crestfallen and filled with a pain that only a mother can have for a son she loves dearly. “ And I don’t want to mess that up for him. Or you. So, I am apologizing for … the incident back at the apartment.”

Rey doesn’t know what to say. 

She thinks she has something to say. She opens her mouth like she has something to say but Leia shakes her head with a smile, “ Just take it, kid. Take it for what it’s worth. Cash it at the bank and we’ll cross this bridge again, another time. Let’s not make this Thanksgiving another one of those stupid family holiday movies. It’s just nice to see my boy back home after all this time.”

As Rey sits at that table, passing the string beans to Han while yelling at Ben to stop smothering her turkey in that god forsaken cranberry sauce while she’s not looking (she realized she didn't like it that much) , somewhere deep in her mind Rey learns that the things she was caught up on were insignificant to what was happening right then and there, at that table in a house somewhere upstate far away from the concrete jungle. Keeping up an image is nothing when it comes to family. Yeah, Ben had a long way to go in figuring out what the hell he wanted to do but it was something that his parents could overlook for the moment now that he was finally home and _smiling_.

With each passing minute over Thanksgiving dinner, Rey sees her boy relax. He laughs more, talks more, and opens up like a flower after a spring rain. She doesn’t want to pick it and instead leaves it be, allowing it to blossom and embrace the warmth of the sun’s rays. There’s obviously a dark shadow hovering over this family, but for a few hours neither a shadow or cloud exists at the table as the sun shines brightly on them.

It’s the first time in her entire life that Rey actually feels a belonging. She reaches for Ben’s hand underneath the table and he intertwines their fingers together, squeezing ever so softly as if to remind her that he has her. That he will _always_ be there for her.

“ Good thing I packed this night bag, hun?” Rey says as she slips into Ben’s NYU Law t-shirt she had ‘borrowed’ (and never gave back). Ben sighs and shakes his head from his bed, back pressed up against the headboard. The bed was tiny and Rey figures the last time Ben had ever slept in it was the night before he left home for school.

The room is painted grey with posters of fighter jets and high school memorabilia pinned to the walls. The top of the clothing drawer is covered in trophies from essay contests and science fairs. For someone as built as Ben Solo, Rey finds it intriguing that he never engaged in any high school sports. It doesn’t linger in her mind for long as she jumps onto the bed and straddles Ben’s hips between her thighs.

She feels his hands on her hips, feels his warmth through the thin strap of her underwear, and bites her lower lip as she feels his large hands trail up her body, under the shirt, resting just at her narrow waist.

“ Hmm, yeah. I don’t think I could have done that drive back.” He says lowly as traces circles into her skin with his thumbs.

“ I… think… I think I love you.” Rey says after a few moments of just allowing her body to melt into his touch.

Ben leans forward and captures her lips into a kiss.

“ I already know.”

**Author's Note:**

> [the falcon](https://artandspeed.com/vehicles/154/1967-shelby-cobra-427).
> 
> i think that's it for this series. there's a lot of drama and there's a lot of work that has to be done. i don't think i ever planned on actually tackling those issues because they never really mattered for rey and ben to finally be comfortable with each other. all i wanted to focus on was getting these two to realize and finally admit that what they have is love and not superficial. as with all relationships, they come with baggage and people just gotta learn how to overcome it.
> 
> so much **thanks** to [moonlightrey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonlightrey/pseuds/moonlightrey) for giving me this prompt and letting me run wild with it. and thank you all for reading and commenting on this story and encouraging me to continue!
> 
> who knows, i might come back and keep adding more to it.
> 
> until next time! [catch me at tumblr](https://shiiiera.tumblr.com/ask)


End file.
